November 15, 2017

January 30, 2013

March 25, 2013

In 2013, the city of Indianapolis will host an event that brings the best and brightest of our nation’s high schoolers to the Circle City. The National High School Mock Trial Championship, a civic program that familiarizes students with the legal process while honing their critical thinking, written and oral advocacy, and research skills, is being held in Indianapolis May 9 – 11, 2013.

Volunteers are needed to serve as judges in the mock trial competition and to help organize the competition sessions and accompanying social events. The 2013 host committee, led by Indianapolis attorney Ann Marie Waldron, is working to recruit approximately 400 Indiana judges and attorney volunteers. In addition to serving as judges for the student competition, volunteers are needed to assist with development and fundraising, publicity, and to coordinate logistics of the mock trial sessions and events.

Waldron

“The kids leave the program having learned civics, rules of evidence, public speaking, drama, debate, and a myriad of other things,” Waldron said. “By volunteering to judge or work with the program in other ways, the attorneys have a direct impact on the education of these kids. It is rare to find a program where you can have such a direct impact.”

Students are given the opportunity to play the role of attorneys and witnesses in a fictitious case that involves quirky characters and interesting factual scenarios, Waldron said. Many students become involved in mock trial teams at their high school because they see it as something fun to do. Local lawyers, teachers, and others who work with high school teams sneak in the educational component once the students have engaged.

The benefit of the program extends beyond the participants, she added. Introducing some of the most high-achieving students in the country to Indiana and the opportunities it offers may be economically beneficial to the state’s future growth.

The 2011 national competition, held in Phoenix, Ariz., included teams from 48 states and territories, South Korea, and Australia. Indiana’s representative team from South Bend’s John Adams High School won the 2011 national championship. Indiana teams have consistently been represented in the competition’s top 10, making the state a recognized leader in the national program. The 2012 competition will be held in Albuquerque, N.M.

To become involved or to learn more, contact Waldron at rwaldron@rwylaw.com or 317-587-7820.•

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Kelly Lucas is what IBJ Media likes to call a “retread” — returning to the Indiana Lawyer in 2010 after serving for five years as the director of communications at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis. Kelly serves as editor and publisher of the newspaper, balancing daily editorial responsibilities with the public relations aspects of publishing.

Kelly grew up in Anderson, Ind., and graduated from Ball State University in 1983 with degrees in journalism and political science. After working for several years on the media staff of the Indiana Senate Majority Caucus, she moved to Chicago and spent the next couple of years traveling to just about every state capital in the U.S. as a public affairs specialist with a national insurance trade association. But as they say, babies change everything, and the birth of her daughter in 1989 motivated her to embark on a freelance career – a move that resulted in her association with the Indiana Lawyer. Today, she has worked every schedule imaginable with IL — part-time, full-time, home-office, and freelance — and served in almost every editorial capacity: reporter, focus editor, managing editor, and now editor and publisher.

Kelly and her husband Dan celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in 2012, the same week they hosted their daughter’s wedding. Her two sons, one in his final year of high school and the other a Purdue Boilermaker, along with Dan and Eli, a 7-year-old lab retriever mix who doesn’t realize he is no longer a puppy, keep her dance card full. While she has never been a juggler in the literal sense, she embraces on a daily basis the effort to “keep all the balls in the air.”